Muskie Amazed at President’s Memory Lapses

WASHINGTON — Former Sen. Edmund S. Muskie (D-Me.) said Sunday that the Tower Commission was astonished by President Reagan’s loss of memory concerning important details of the Iran- contra affair and that he questions whether the President “can come to grips with the responsibilities of his office.”

The President’s memory problems and hands-off style of management, both documented by the commission’s report that was released Thursday, have raised questions among government officials and even among some of Reagan’s advisers about whether he can govern effectively during the next two years.

‘Absence of . . . Alertness’

Muskie, commenting about Reagan’s appearances before the commission, said on CBS’s “Face the Nation”:

” . . . I wouldn’t say that we’ve treated him as a mental patient--or considered him a mental patient. But certainly, we were all appalled by the absence of the kind of alertness and vigilance to his job and to these policies that one expects of a President.”

When asked if Reagan’s failure to recall important meetings involving the Iranian arms sale policy worried him, Muskie said: “Of course that worries us. I mean, to have the President not focusing and not recalling what he did on these significant occasions is worrisome.”

Several other officials who have seen Reagan up close recently also have questioned both his memory lapses in the Iran-contra affair and his general alertness in dealing with complex national security affairs.

“I’m worried for him,” said a high-level government official who sees Reagan frequently. “His decision-making process is fuzzy. He doesn’t ask questions, and you leave and you don’t know whether he will take your advice. And so many duties and responsibilities are imposed on the President. It’s scary.”

The official, who refused to be identified, pointed out that all of the old California colleagues Reagan brought into the White House in his first term are gone now and said: “I have good reason to believe he feels lonely over there now.”

Reagan’s longtime friend and confidant, former Sen. Paul Laxalt (R-Nev.), also scored the President’s “hands-off management style” Sunday and called it imperative for him to become a hands-on manager “in these operations involving NSC (National Security Council) and sensitive areas.”

Laxalt, one of several strategists advising the President on how to respond to the Tower Commission report, said he believes Reagan has “learned a very forcible lesson, and he’ll respond to it, even though many people don’t think that he will.”

Getting to Nitty-Gritty

“It’s a question of whether he wants to focus his attention on it,” Laxalt said on ABC’s “This Week With David Brinkley.” “He’s capable of it. I’ve seen it in other situations. If he wants to get in the nitty-gritty of something--as he is in SDI (Strategic Defense Initiative) or the tax-cut program. And he’s going to have to devote a lot of personal time and attention to it.”

Laxalt was the moving force behind Reagan’s first step to get the Administration off to a fresh start after the commission’s report was released--the appointment of former Senate Republican leader Howard H. Baker Jr. of Tennessee to succeed Donald T. Regan as chief of staff. The commission faulted Regan for not protecting the President and held him primarily responsible for “the chaos that descended on the White House” after Reagan’s policy of selling arms to Iran was exposed.

Another Reagan adviser, who refused to be identified, said the President must take other positive steps within the next week to demonstrate he is in charge or his presidency will be in grave jeopardy.

‘He Has a Chance’

“It’s clear to me that if there isn’t another major revelation--some culpability of wrongdoing that comes out of the congressional investigations and that touches on the President more directly than it has so far--he has a chance to get back on track,” the adviser said. “And he could exercise a good deal of influence on what happens in the next two years.”

Muskie said that in his meetings with the Tower Commission, Reagan “was definite in what he remembered and what he didn’t. But what he didn’t remember astonished us, because by that time, we had been exposed to a great deal of the story. And we expected him to reinforce some rather obvious developments. . . . And he did not recall them. And he did not recall meetings that we knew took place at that point.”

When CBS’s Lesley Stahl, moderator of “Face the Nation,” asked whether Muskie thinks Reagan “can go on,” the former senator replied:

“That depends upon how he faces adversity--this is a season of deep adversity for him--and whether or not he can mobilize his energies and go to work. I know what you’re driving at, Lesley, but we do not regard him as a mental case. But we regard him as a President who didn’t do his job.”

Responsibility for Mistakes

Muskie said Reagan was “clearly responsible” for mistakes that were made, but that Vice President George Bush, although a member of the National Security Council, “is noteworthy more for his absence than his involvement in this whole unfolding tragedy, and it is a tragedy.”

Reagan, meanwhile, remained in the White House over the weekend poring over the 290-page Tower Commission report in preparation for a session with his Cabinet today and for what may be the most crucial speech of his presidency--a nationally televised address to the nation Wednesday night in response to the Tower report.

The President still has not finished reading the report, a White House official said Sunday afternoon. But the official added: “I’m sure once he’s finally through reading it he’ll have a firm grasp of what it’s all about. He’ll be ready to discuss it with the Cabinet Monday.”

The official said that Reagan had been upset by news reports that he appeared flustered and stumbled over several words when he introduced Muskie and the other two commission members--former Sen. John Tower (R-Tex.) and Brent Scowcroft--when they issued their report at the White House Thursday.

‘Wasn’t Flustered’

“The President said he wasn’t flustered,” the official said. “It was just that a paper clip he had on some notes he was reading got out of line and he lost his place.”

Ever since Reagan’s policy of selling arms to Iran was exposed in a Beirut magazine last Nov. 4, Reagan has publicly defended the policy as sound although several of his aides had advised him from the outset to concede it was a mistake. And in face of evidence to the contrary, he has insisted the arms sales were aimed at establishing relations with moderate elements in Iran, not at seeking Iran’s help in securing the release of American hostages held in Beirut.

The Tower Commission, which was appointed by the President, declared that the arms sale policy itself was flawed and that its main purpose was to secure the release of American hostages.

Laxalt said he would advise the President not to dwell on details of the Tower report in his televised address, but to concede that it was “a flawed policy.”

“I’d like to have him do that,” Laxalt said. “But I don’t think he’s there in his own mind yet.”

‘It Was a Mistake’

Later, after the television interview, Laxalt told reporters: “Many of us who are close to him are imploring him to reevaluate this on a retrospective basis and perhaps indicate to the American people this week that it was a mistake . . . not only in terms of implementation, but the policy itself was flawed.” At age 76, Reagan is by far the oldest American President to hold office, but Laxalt said he believes age is irrelevant. “He’s a very vigorous 76,” he added.

Laxalt said Reagan has been blessed by top staff during most of his political career and has been able to delegate freely, although his hands-off style of management “backfired” in the Iran-contra affair.

Now, he said, “under these circumstances, with a vigilant press watching every move, and recognizing that this has been a very difficult year’s period, he’s going to have to get his head and his step squarely into this operation and stay on top of it.”

In another interview Sunday, Sen. Sam Nunn (D-Ga.), a member of the select committee investigating the Iran-contra affair, said that while the Tower report was “very damning,” it gives the President an opportunity to become more involved in his own policies and to “get his own house in order.”

He said Reagan has “just got to be a little more vigorous . . . and more assertive in making decisions and setting the tone and the policy of his Administration.”